Article snippet: The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday rejected the Trump administration’s request to temporarily halt a lower court order blocking the diversion of military funds for a border wall. In a 2-1 ruling, the panel of appellate judges found that “the use of those funds violates the constitutional requirement that the Executive Branch not spend money absent an appropriation from Congress.” The order applies to some of the military funds tapped by MORE for a wall along the southern border. In the ruling, Judge Richard Clifton, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush, and Judge Michelle Friedland, an Obama appointee, wrote that they believed the administration was not likely to succeed in appealing the lower court order. The administration had issued an emergency request to the 9th Circuit asking the judges to lift the lower court injunctions. But the judges on Wednesday denied that request. They ruled that officials had wrongly reallocated funds under Section 8005 of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act of 2019, which allows for the reappropriation of funds for “unforeseen” military requirements. “Because section 8005 did not authorize DoD to reprogram the funds—and Defendants do not and cannot argue that any other statutory or constitutional provision authorized the reprogramming—the use of those funds violates the constitutional requirement that the Executive Branch not spend money absent an appropriation from Congress,” the opinion reads. ... Link to the full article to read more